


Dinner Date

by TheMerryPanda



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-16 21:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21277835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMerryPanda/pseuds/TheMerryPanda
Summary: Alex’s 10 Heart Event, but with the kiss.





	Dinner Date

**Author's Note:**

> I have more of a backstory planned for farmer Sara. For this snippet of a story, it suffices to say that before moving to Stardew Valley, she had a boyfriend who she dumped when she realized he was cheating on her. (She reveals this to Alex some time before their dinner date.) When she moved to Pelican Town, Sara and Alex didn’t get along well at first because he reminded her of the ex in some ways. She learns to look past his conceited act and they become friends.

That morning, Sara found a letter with, well, ordinary, handwriting in her mailbox. Neither the message nor its sender, however, were ordinary to her.

_ Sara, _

_ Meet me at the saloon tonight after dark. _

_ ~ Alex _

Hmm. Interesting. She tried not to think too much of it. After the usual farm chores, she grabbed her fishing rod and decided to fish for salmon by Haley and Emily’s house.

It was afternoon when Emily left her home for work. “Hi Sara!”

“Hey Emily! How are you today?”

“I'm feeling great! How about you? Are you excited about your dinner date tonight?”

“A date?” Sara was confused.

“With Alex?” Emily pressed.

Oh, that must be what he meant by his letter! “Oh yeah. Sorry, my mind has been wandering a lot more than usual today.”

“Do you have any requests for dinner? Steak? Linguine with mushroom cream sauce?”

“What do you have for salads?” Sara suddenly felt queasy, a jittery feeling in her stomach that she recognized would limit how much she would usually eat.

“Kale and walnut is the special today.”

“How about that? That sounds good.”

“Great!” Emily gleefully turned towards the saloon. “I’ll see you tonight!”

Sara waved. “See ya.”

When Emily was out of sight, Sara exhaled deeply. It wasn’t actually going to be a date, was it? Perhaps he just wanted to follow through on an old idea of sitting down for dinner and talking about philosophy. Regardless, Sara felt extremely nervous. It had been too long since she was in a real relationship, and wasn’t sure anymore if she could tell that a given relationship is right. If Alex asked, would she pursue a genuine courtship? What if he “dumped” her instead, forever ending their friendship? For some reason she didn’t quite understand yet, the latter sounded worse.

Finally, the sun touched the horizon. Sara took her haul back to her home and placed the fish in the shipping box. She quickly showered, and dried her hair even more rapidly with the aid of a towel and hair-dryer. She opted to let her hair fall to her waist rather than tying it up into her usual messy bun. After a touch of makeup (and a hint of perfume before she realized she applied it on herself), she followed the streetlights and made her way towards the saloon.

Stay calm, Sara, she reminded herself as she walked. It might not even be anything serious at all. Just a friendly dinner.

She paused outside the door, took a deep breath, then entered the Stardrop Saloon.

* * *

Alex sat at a table beside the saloon door. He wore his usual attire: his varsity jacket over his Prussian blue V-neck, faded jeans and white sneakers, but today he made sure that the clothes smelled freshly cleaned and appeared as wrinkle-free as possible, with the aid of his Granny of course. His hair was gelled, not nearly as much as he used to gel it up, but enough so that his fine, spiky hairstyle looked neat rather than messy.

Alex nervously drummed his fingers against the table. I should have given her a time, he thought. What if she doesn’t come? Did I tell that there would be dinner? What if she already ate? He started to regret not spending as much time on the letter he sent as he should have.

He suddenly rose to his feet when he heard the door open. He was relieved, then nervous all over again when Sara appeared.

“Hi, Alex.”

“Hey.”

“So… dinner?”

Alex blinked and recovered. “Yeah, this way.”

Alex led her into a back room with a table and two chairs, where Gus played a violin. Sara felt her face flushing. It _was_ a date, she realized. Alex pulled out a chair for her, and pushed it in as she sat down. He then sat across from her. Sara avoided eye contact with him, opting instead to look at Gus while he played. All too soon, his song ended.

“Thanks, Gus. That was great.”

Gus nodded and departed with his violin.

Sara darted her eyes, looking around the room. There were a few potted plants that gave the room a more serene feel. Alex noticed her eyes, and tried to follow whatever she looked at.

“This is nice…” he finally commented. “I’ve never dined in here before.”

“It is a cozy room.” Sara replied. The room fell unnervingly quiet.

“Um, anyway…” Alex tried to diffuse the quiet tension. “I reserved this private room so we could talk.”

“About phi-lo-so-phy, is it?”

The two laughed softly. Emily then came in with two plates of food, placing them down in front of each Sara and Alex.

“I’ve got a kale and walnut salad for the lady, and a grilled steak for the gentleman.”

“Thanks.” Alex replied. Emily turned on her heel and left the room. Alex exhaled deeply, working up the courage to say what was on his mind.

“So,” he began, “what I wanted to say was…” He gulped. Sara subconsciously also gulped. Alex’s face turned a brilliant shade of red Sara hadn’t seen before. To her surprise, it struck her as handsome.

“When I first met you, I thought you were really cute. Normally, when I have a crush on someone, the feeling goes away pretty quick…” his voice faltered slightly. “…But with you, Sara, it kept growing.”

Well, now she knows. Sara simply sat there, her jaw dropped just a little bit in shock. If he wasn’t so nervous, Alex would have thought it was cute. He waited for her to say something, anything, but over the course of a painfully long fifteen seconds, all she did was shut her mouth again.

Alex hung his head. “I understand if you’re not interested though, especially with someone like me considering your ex-boyfriend…”

“Alex…” Sara started, hoping that the right words would come. “I feel the same way.” She realized as she said this.

Alex perked up, pleasantly confused.

“The first time we met,” Sara continued as she reflected on her memories with Alex, “I also thought you were cute. I had hoped that the crush would go away when I realized how arrogant I thought you were, how much you were like _him_. But as I’ve gotten to know you better, how different you are in all the right ways, the crush instead grew. It terrified me at first, but now… now, I think I’m okay with it.”

Sara’s blush matched Alex’s. Alex smiled, but not his usual confident grin, but a contented, happy smile. “I can’t believe it took this long to say that to each other.” He gazed adoringly at Sara for about a minute, and she in turn stared deeply into his eyes before he remembered his plate of food. Sara took a bite of her salad, and Alex picked up his fork and knife and cut off a piece of steak.

Gus never fails to make great steak, he discovered once again.

“Mmm… this steak is outstanding. Can you smell that fragrant sauce?”

They heard a tap on the window, and turned to see Dusty’s head. Dusty nudged the window open with his nose, and started to drool and whine.

“I think he can.” Sara quipped.

“Dusty…” before Alex could stop him, Dusty leaped through the window and landed on the table. “NO!”

Sara moved her plate off the table, but Alex wasn’t as fast. The sudden weight of the dog moved the table end in such a way that his plate fell to the floor. Thankfully, the plate didn’t break. The steak, however, made a mess on the floor and wasn’t worth recovering anymore.

“Aw, Dusty…” Alex muttered disappointedly as he held his dog by the collar.

“Here.” Sara walked over, grabbing some napkins. “I’ll clean this. You go chain him back up. I’ll meet you outside.”

“Alright.” Instead of walking out the main entrance, Alex hefted Dusty up and through the high window. “Okay, Dusty, you’re going to have to break your own fall…”

“You could just walk him out of the saloon, you know?”

“Dusty’s already broken into here once, and Gus really wasn’t happy about it then. I don’t want to deal with that again just yet. Besides, he can handle the jump.”

Dusty got through the window, and Alex climbed through behind him. He carefully stumbled to the ground, then took Dusty back to his doghouse. Dusty had managed to pry free of the chain again. He was going to have to get a new chain, he thought.

“Salad?” Sara waved some in the window.

“No thanks, I’m not that hungry.”

“Okay, cool. Me neither.” Sara set the two plates down on the table, hastily scribbled out a vague apology note to Gus, then pushed a chair to the window. She climbed up and realized she wouldn't be able to get down as easily as she thought. “Alex, you got a minute?”

“Yeah, I just finished chaining Dusty back up. Be right there.”

Alex walked over. Sara poked her head and arms through the window and held Alex by his shoulders for support. He held her as she pushed herself through the window and made sure she didn’t fall. Her feet swung towards his shins, but Sara managed to bend her knees and slow her feet so they wouldn’t hurt Alex.

“Thanks.” Sara attempted to let go, but Alex held on, holding her in the air.

“You think I’m going to let you go that easily now that you’re here?” Alex whispered in a deeper voice. He gently set her feet down on the grass anyway and took one hand off her waist, giving her ample space to walk away if she wanted to.

“No, but I’m grateful you did.” Sara winked, then wrapped her arms around his neck as she leaned into his chest. She tiptoed to bring her mouth to his ear and whispered, somehow sarcastically as well as seductively. “How can I ever repay you?”

“Well…”

They both nudged their noses together and met in a kiss. It was cut short by Dusty barking at them. Sara giggled as Alex shushed his dog to no avail.

“Follow me.” Alex offered his hand. “He won’t be able to bark at us from behind the abandoned JojaMart.”

Sara happily took his hand. They ran together across the cobblestone bridge, past the JojaMart, and stopped under a tree, far from any artificial light source.

“Geez, Alex. You sure know how to get a girl’s heart racing.” Sara teased when she caught her breath. She faced him and rested her other hand on Alex’s bicep.

Alex grinned wickedly, and in turn pulled her into him, threading his thumb through one of the belt loops on her jeans and resting the palm of his hand on her hip bone. Their lips touched ever so slightly as he whispered, “And you, Sara, are pretty breathtaking yourself.”


End file.
